Vehicle marker lights have long been used to signal, for example, emergency (e.g., tow trucks and police or fire vehicles) and maintenance vehicles (e.g., street sweepers), as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,484,598, 3,692,998, 5,299,102 and 6,858,986, each of which are entirely incorporated herein by reference. Incandescent lighting systems have traditionally been used for this purpose. But such systems are relatively inefficient and unreliable when compared to light emitting diodes (LEDs), which have an operating life of up to 100,000 hours before significant degradation. Recently, LED vehicle marker light systems have become more common. However, despite improvement over incandescent lighting systems, LED light systems can still be improved in order to offer greater benefits related to the operation of series of light fixtures in a coordinated manner. Further, LED light fixtures may suffer from inefficient light dispersion characteristics.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,858,986 issued Feb. 22, 2005 to the Assignee of this application, titled “Programmable LED Vehicle Marker Light Assembly,” and also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses one programmable LED light system which is believed to be an improvement over known incandescent lighting system. However, further improvements are possible, as discussed below.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved design for light fixtures and light fixture systems in which the operation of the fixtures may be programmable, easy to use, reliable, incorporating LED technology, made of off-the-shelf components and standard circuits, durable, and having flexible lighting options, e.g., acting as both a marker light as well as emergency flashers, traffic control arrows, turn signals, strobes, etc. In addition, it would be desirable to improve current LED technology in order to apply the improved technology to applications other than those associated with traditional vehicle lighting. Further, it would be desirable to improve the light dispersion characteristics of LED light fixtures.
Definition of Claim Terms
The following terms are used in the claims of the patent as filed and are intended to have their broadest meaning consistent with the requirements of law. Where alternative meanings are possible, the broadest meaning is intended. All words used in the claims are intended to be used in the normal, customary usage of grammar and the English language.
“Emergency light” means lighting functioning as an emergency or warning light for the vehicle on which it is used.
“Lamp” means any device for transmitting light, including but not limited to LEDs, incandescent light bulbs, fluorescent light bulbs, halogen light bulbs, etc.
“LED” means a light emitting diode, a p-n junction solid state device which emits optical radiation when forward biased.
“Light fixture” means a plurality of lamps controlled by one or more microcontrollers.
“Marker light” means lighting functioning as a marker or clearance light for the vehicle on which it is used.
“Warning light” means an emergency light as defined above.